Less than 24 hours after the 49ers‘ loss in the Super Bowl, tight end Delanie Walker had forgotten about it.

The defeat paled in comparison to the knee-buckling news he received shortly after the team plane touched down in San Jose: His aunt and uncle, Alice and Bryan Young, had been killed by an alleged drunk driver hours after Walker hugged them goodbye at the 49ers’ post-game party the previous night.

Alice Young, 42, who had helped raise Walker, married Bryan, 54, in 2004. Walker was the last member of his family to see the Youngs, who had traveled from Victorville (San Bernardino County) to spend the week of the Super Bowl in New Orleans.

“The Super Bowl – I forgot all about it,” Walker said. “It was like it didn’t even happen. My auntie was very close to me. It really hurt me because she came out to watch me play. It was something that happened to her when she came out to see me. That’s what hit me the hardest.”

At about 5:30 a.m. on Feb. 4, the Youngs were inside their car on the shoulder of Interstate 10 outside New Orleans when Nechole Thomas, 26, plowed into the back of their 2012 Nissan Altima at more than 100 mph, Walker said. The Altima burst into flames.

Thomas has since been held at the Nelson Coleman Correctional Center in Killona, La., charged with two counts of vehicular homicide, one count of driving while intoxicated and one count of reckless operation of a motor vehicle.